Update
When worlds collide: the damage to Jim Kilroy’s Maxi Kialoa III after being assaulted by the legendary wood-built Windward Passage during the Southern Cross in Sydney in 1977. At the time the slightly shorter Passage was racing with a small bowsprit which made the visit particularly interesting for the crew of Kialoa, several of whom ended up in the water. This one probably won’t just ‘buff out’
Rolf Vrolijk’s Momomade it incredibly difficult to match her upwind performance. Clearly that was a trend that continued into the 2018 season as Momo defended her 2017 world title. Another evolution that came out of watching was the development
of an inshore rig (lighter for same stiffness or stiffer) which allowed the boat to maintain a certain stability, or be stiffer while maintaining the same weight, or lighter overall. All of which means either an increase in upwind performance in breeze or performance increase in the lighter air all the way around the track. Conceptually, though, Bella Mente was targeted in design
philosophy to get to the top mark first. That is the approach we are comfortable with. From there you put the elbows out and defend. In this racing if you don’t win the first cross it gets really tough back in the pack. For the new boat Bella Mente developed a triple-spreader
sweptback rig designed by Steve Wilson and built by Southern Spars. Steve spent a lot of time researching windage, weight for strength/stiffness and functionality. Given that unlike racing a TP52 we are not allowed to adjust rake on the fly, a certain level of tuning across the range is required. We also went with the latest AEROrazr rigging from Future Fibres.
This package is tricky as you can manufacture something that is incredible strong, low windage, yet susceptible to breakage with impact. Balancing performance with reliability is tough because we want and need both. I can say with confidence that as the boat is dropping off short, sharp Gulf Stream waves you seriously question if you went strong enough into the reliability. Other areas of improvement that we researched were a spinnaker
take-down system and a winch configuration that will allow the team to sail more like a dinghy than a 72-footer. Having the ability to work the boat and continually to pump sails efficiently allows for that extra boat length. Without question the Maxi72 is another game of inches and in
the early days we will be fighting the other teams who know their respective boats while we develop our learning curve. Of course the outstanding feature of Bella Mente is we are new design, new engineering and new concepts. It will be interesting to see versus the fleet how long it takes us to get up to speed. In the past these boats have not hit their strides until the third and fourth season. A combination of understanding the boat’s performance and the IRC rating takes time to develop.
16 SEAHORSE The conclusion of our session saw Bella Mente set the monohull
record for the race to the buffet, aka the Wirth-Monroe Race from Miami sea buoy to Palm Beach. In essence, though, it is a 60-mile sprint, starboard tack, TWA of 60 for 57 miles and code zero for three miles. A fun race and yet a great reminder that we are still racing IRC as the TP52s pounded us on corrected! 2019 will see Bella compete in the Caribbean 600, Voiles de
St Barth, Copa del Rey and Maxi World Championship. Given the happenings of American Magic this is a lot of yachting with the same expectations. Exciting times, to say the least, be it going 25kt downwind on Bella Mente in the Gulf Stream or some ridiculous speed downwind on the mule… I am looking forward to the year ahead! Both disciplines are great yachting and it is fun to go to work each day learning something new. Standing by on Amtrak, 17 December 2018. Happy New Year to all!
CRUNCH – Neil Harvey Andrew… Wow! Forty-one years late I see my quotation in Seahorse (issue 465) re the big hole in the port side of Kialoa III. Actually, I have to correct you – it happened in one of the round-the-buoys races of the Southern Cross Cup series in December of 1977 out off Sydney Heads, not at the start of the Hobart race. Still a big bang, though! We, on Kialoa, were ahead of Windward Passageboth approaching
a leeward mark on a reach and preparing for going back upwind. Our tactician Andy Rose called Passagethat they did not have an overlap, and then instructed our owner/driver Jim Kilroy to dial down a bit and make a broader circle rounding so that we would come up hard on the wind close by the buoy. I can still see one of the Passage crew (name withheld…) out
on the bowsprit of Passage, aggressively pointing his finger directing his skipper Robbie Vaughan to ‘come up’. Robbie did exactly that, and at first I thought Passagewas going
to come aboard us right about amidships where the bulk of the crew were. Being the mainsail trimmer, I was there, along with the grinders, trimmers and guys getting ready to hike to windward, but miraculously they collided with us halfway along the aft cockpit, with her thick stainless steel rod bobstay slicing through our shear- line and toe-rail before it parted and her bow rode up over us… and the bowsprit poked through our reefed mizzen.
w
HARV
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102
